When I went to Stitches South, I bought all kinds of pretty yarn. But my favorite by far was the Tomato Frog Bugga. So absolutely luscious. It’s an MCN blend – merino, cashmere, & nylon. And it’s really just love in the form of yarn. And it’s red. The most beautiful semi-solid red with so much depth. And I made it into this:

One skein of Bugga, size 7 needles, and lovely lace patterns to edge the top and bottom worked side-to-side in one piece.

This knit up crazy fast – even for me. I think it was that the yarn was just that nice to work with. And even when I soaked, there was only the faintest tinge of red in the water – which is just unheard of. At Sanguine Gryphon, they do it up right.

Needles: Size 7 needles (4.5 mm)

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in the Tomato Frog colorway, 113 grams, 412 yards

Size: Sample blocked to 74″ wide and 18″ deep

Gauge: 18 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches in blocked garter

Notes: Worked from side to side. Offered in charted and written format.

The Renita Shawlette on Ravelry – $6.00 USD

First up, a friendly (and totally self-promoting) reminder. The Daphne Ann Mystery Knit price will increase from $6.00 to $9.50 on Friday. So today and tomorrow is all you got if you want the cheaper price. We start knitting on August 15th!!!

Second on the agenda is a tutorial. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a tutorial. But here’s the thing. ALL of my lace patterns will look better, get bigger, and be nicer if you give them a good, rigorous blocking. That sounds a bit um, yeah. But it’s the truth.

Today I blocked Renita. It will be for sale just as soon as my fabulous tech editor finishes with it and I get some proper pictures. So we’re gonna do this step by step – how to block a triangular shawl.

SUPPLY LIST

• Knitted piece, with ends woven in, but NOT trimmed
• Water and a big bowl or basin, and some sort of wool soak if desired
• Listening material – you can’t watch TV and do this properly
• Pins and/or wires and/or cotton string
• Blocking surface – I use a 6 foot square styrofoam block. Some folks block on their carpeted floor or bed with a towel underneath. I also have those nice garage foam blocks that interlock.

STEP ONE: Time for a bath!

You need to soak your piece for a minimum of 30 minutes. I use warm tap water and a squirt of Soak or Eucalan. You don’t need to rinse out the good wool washes. And you need the time to make sure all the fibers are fully saturated. After the bath you need to use a towel or somesuch to carefully squeeze the excess water out of the knitted piece.

STEP TWO: Establish an edge. You can do this with pins or wires or string. This shawlette has a shallow triangle shape, so I establish the top edge first.

This shawlette has a nice picot edging with eyelets along the top. So I begin by threading my blocking wires (I used three long ones) through the eyelets. This gives the shawlette a straight edge to pull against.

After I have the wires in, I use some pins to hold the straight edge in place.

STEP THREE: Stretch out the other two sides. You can use wires or string for this, but I like pins.

I do the points a few at a time. And I do them well spaced apart so I am stretching things as evenly as possible.

STEP FOUR: Fix the details. Again, I’m using pins here. You can run a wire or string through all the points, but I like this method better. Although I did run out of T-Pins this go-round.

You can see how the picot points are nice and even. I usually remove the holding wires I started with. I want the eyelets to form naturally from the points – not from the wire.

STEP FIVE: Straighten up the edges.

This is kind of wonky here as you can see. So I use the pins to stretch the points out into a straight line. When I’m finished fixing it, things looks more like this:

The points are lined up (to my satisfaction) and the entire stockinette portion of the shawl has opened up and grown.

All that’s left to do now is let the beautiful finished object dry in place – at least 24 hours – and then you can trim the woven in ends. I like the styrofoam block because I can stand it upright and not take up as space in my little house. This is not the *only* way to block, but this is the way I do it. Hope it helps you on your next lacy adventure.

I have a new free pattern out from the lovely folks at Classic Elite.  A perfect quick knit for the last days of summer. Ok, I know, summer is going to last for 2-3 more months here in sunny Florida, but for the rest of you normal seasonal people, this is nice and quick. If you live in Florida, take your time.

It’s made out of Classic Silk by Classic Elite which is a very yummy blend of silk and cotton with a bit of nylon. It works up into a nice lightweight summer fabric and even stockinette fabric in this yarn has character.

The camisole has reinforced garter stitch straps (to prevent stretching) and is edged in a lovely Plantation Lace pattern. Hence the name of a camisole – the Mayfaire Plantation is prominent in a series of Anne Rice books I read when I was younger and didn’t have children to tend and knitting design work to do!

The pattern is free and comes in sizes from a 30″ to 50″ bust.  I think it would work best with zero to negative ease – as there is full fashioned shaping on the waist. Go and grab your free Classic Silk Mayfaire Camisole pattern from the Classic Elite Webletter site. Better yet, sign up for the webletter. It’s a new pattern e-mailed to you every single week!

PicnicKnits is going pink! I’ve got less than three months until I have to walk 60 miles for the Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. And I’ve not even raised 25% of the money I need to be able to walk. So I’m going pink! Yes, it is a lot of pink. But it’s here until I reach my fundraising goal of $2300. Even $5 will help -  here’s my donation page.

I’m also in the process of designing some new pink patterns to help raise funds for me and my team. So watch this space for those.

In other news, you only have until Thursday, August 5th to buy the Daphne Ann Mystery Shawl at the bargain price of $6.00. After that it goes up to $9.50. Even if you would just like the complete pattern after all the mystery knitting is over, now is the time to buy!

Lace is mysterious. You knit along and it looks like a yarny lump. Until you block it, and then something glorious appears. And the time is fast approaching for the first PicnicKnits Mystery Shawl Knit-A-Long.  Here’s what you need to know:

• This shawl is worked from the top down, starting at the neckline. It will be a little more than a half circle, so it will sit nicely on your shoulders. This shawl is NOT side-to-side.
• I’m using one skein Dream In Color Baby in Punky Fuschia and size 6 (4mm) needles. As with most lace, a semi-solid or solid color will show the patterning best. Baby has 700 yards to 113 grams (or 3.99 ounces). It is considered a lace weight, but I would really call it a light fingering.
• Clues will be e-mailed to participants once a week beginning on August 15th. All clues will be provided in charted and written format.
• Discussion and support will take place on Ravelry in the PicnicKnits group. Ravelry accounts are free if you don’t have one already.
• There will be five clues that are approximately the same amount of knitting. When you make your purchase you will receive a supplies list and a charted and written pattern for a gauge swatch.
• Early bird sales are happening now! The early bird price is $6.00 – the later gator (full) price is $9.50. The early bird price will be available until August 5th. That will be the last day to buy the pattern at the early bird price.

The Daphne Ann Mystery Knit Shawl on Ravelry – $6.00 USD

Spent being the operative word. As in spent money. I didn’t really plan to go to any yarn stores on vacation. I have more yarn lined up for projects than I know what to do with. And my brain is about to explode with the ideas. But the man wanted to stop at a brewery he had visited a few weeks prior to pick up some of their “hop bomb” beer. And there was a yarn store right there! Unfortunately I could not buy anything at this store. They were having a knit-in of some sort and couldn’t be bothered to greet me at all. Although I did get some dirty looks. And just to make sure they wouldn’t get any of my money, they had photocopies of knitty patterns for the taking. Which is a big knitty no-no. (Yes, I reported them).

So I thought I was safe. I didn’t need any yarn anyhow. Until I got to the hotel in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. There was a free magazine in the lobby. Do you know what was on the cover of the free mag? A yarn store! It was fate. And the store was only a few miles from the hotel. So I went there, praying for a better visit. I was not disappointed.

Klose Knit is fabulous. It’s an old converted house, and it’s beautiful and cozy and welcoming. They were having a knit-in and they invited me to sit and knit. The owner walked me around to show me things. They even offered me pastries if I didn’t have time to stay.

So I had to buy just a few things.

And then she mentioned she had Malabrigo Sock in Light of Love, which I can never get my hands on. Apparently I can’t photograph it either, but it’s going to be perfect for my 3-Day Breast Cancer Fundraising Shawlette that I’m designing.

So I was happy. The good yarn store balance had been restored. I had such a lovely time at Klose Knit. If you’re in the area – or a reasonable drive – you must go! And I was happy in my yarnie world. But then I did a little google search. And there was another yarn store in the area. This one even closer to the hotel. So I left the menfolk in the room and decided to make a quick trip over.

Needleworks has more buttons than I’ve ever seen in one place. I found the perfect buttons for a sooper seekrit project. They have a huge store. With sweater quantities and more of all sorts of gorgeous yarns. The yarn above is made for dyeing, but I thought it would be perfect undyed for a winter shawlette or capelet. Oh and did I mention it’s baby llama? It’s luscious!

Oh and they were having a knit-in too! Everyone said hi and was super friendly. They do a potluck on the day I was there and invited me to stay for lunch! I wish I could have, but I spent an hour picking out perfect buttons, so I had to run!

So now, things are even better. One very bad yarn store, two really wonderful yarn store experiences. I was good. I needed no more. But then the non-knitter we stayed with on the way home recommended a store. She doesn’t even knit and she recommended it? I had to go!

River Wools is also just fantastic. The lady at the counter was lovely and welcoming – showing me around and helping me find stuff. They had tons of gorgeous yarns. Right in downtown Terra Haute, Indiana. I had a lovely visit while the menfolk were off buying square donuts – which were pretty darn tasty by the way!

So there you go. A 75% success rate. Three really wonderful yarnstores where they knew how to treat people and had delicious and beautiful yarns. So if you’re in the midwest, all three of these are worth a road-trip and convenient to some major highways. Three thumbs up!

Vacation was NOT an epic failure. We actually had a really lovely time. I was treated to many birthday dinners  and many birthday margaritas. I might have worn the birthday sombrero more than once. This summer’s vacation was the Grandparent World Tour. The boys got to see all their grandparents, including GGMa, who is their only living great-grandparent. It was a good trip. The driving went well and the boys were welcomed and spoiled at every stop.

While on vacation, naturally I was knitting. On one of those sooper seekrit projects that I can’t show you. But I can show you this:

Do you know what that is? It is an entire skein of Malabrigo Twist yarn which has been through a hot water wash and a full dryer cycle. It kind of looks like wooly blue brains. But wait, it gets better.

I was nearly finished with said object and had two skeins of yarn left that I had brought along. I was hoping to not have to break into them, but they were insurance, you know? My dear, sweet, lovely husband was doing laundry for us at my dad’s house. I was rolling the clothes back up to be placed in suitcases. When I pulled out the monstrosity you see above.

I might have cried a little bit, I might have screamed. I will not admit to threatening my husband’s life. Not yet. I was comfortable in the knowledge that I had a second backup skein. So I finished rolling up my half of the laundry and went back to doing some slicing for dinner.

That’s when he found the second skein – in the same state. And then I very calmly told my sister to take the knife away from me through gritted teeth. There is no photographic evidence that I pointed the knife at him all “Psycho” like. No one recorded the threats on his life and appendages. So as far as I’m concerned it didn’t really happen. And luckily for him I was able to finish the object without the 2 backup skeins. Very, very lucky for him.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the minivan this past week. And that, combined with my advancing age, has led me to think too much.

1. America is too much the same. Every city has the same restaurants, the same stores. It’s kind of sad.

2. I have an amazing family. All of them. Even though some of the crazy connections are strange fodder for afternoon talk shows, they are made of awesome.

3. It’s hotter in Ohio than it is where I live in Florida right now. That is just wrong.

4. I miss hills and mountains. Jacksonville is too cussing flat.

5. My new favorite curseword is “cuss”. I blame Mr. Fox.

6. Marking time by how fast children grow is bittersweet.

7. I think there might be some niece or nephew to call me Aunt Coco forever.

8. I need more summer dresses if it’s gonna be this hot all over.

9. It’s really fun to wake up to umpteen birthday wishes on facebook.

10. It’s reassuring how somethings (and some people) never change.

11. It’s disheartening that the ones who really need to change never do.

12. I have the best sons in the world. You can’t have them.

13. Ditto for the husband.

14. The older I get, the more proficient I am at hiding my gray hair.

15. Today for my birthday I am getting a pedicure come cuss or high water. Fortunately musing #1 insures that there will be a nice little nail salon in every strip mall.

16. Short hair is way easier to take care of than long hair.

17. The hills in Cincinnati are more beautiful than I remember.

18. Skyline chili never changes.

19. Nor does LaRosa’s.

20. That’s two of those good not-changing things.

21. Yes, I am running out of profound thoughts. Why do you ask?

22. I love having a business that keeps running even while I am away.

23. Ditto when I’m asleep.

24. Vacation can make you a slacker when it comes to things like training for the 3-day.

25. But a nice hike in the ever lovely Rowe Woods can be a reasonable substitute, right?

26. My 20th high school reunion is this fall.

27. I wish I could go, but October is just too busy of a month.

28. You are never too old for Scooby Doo.

29. I can listen to Jim Dale read Harry Potter over and over again – even though I know how every story ends.

30. Wireless internet is a thing of beauty.

31. A knitting designer can never have too many stitch dictionaries/inspiration books.

32. To that end I bought two more last night.

33. Some of the pictures of me that hang in these homes I am visiting are very embarrassing.

34. No, I will not share them with you.

35. Trying to give up a 26 year addiction to diet pepsi during vacation is not the best plan.

36. Writing 38 things without my morning diet pepsi is also not very wise.

37. In order to see everyone I would like to see on vacation, this trip would have had to be a month long.

38. Being this close to forty is a bit humbling. But I’m happier than I’ve ever been and I can’t complain.

A couple of years ago, the Yarn Harlot blogged about the fleece stealing squirrel. My then eight year old son nearly peed his pants laughing at it. And then he drew the schematics for a better squirrel trap.

You really should click through and see the larger version of this. So you can see that the squirrel is in ninja “hiya” position on the right. And so you can read the detailed workings of an eight year old mind in his own hand-writing. But this is what he says:

Operator sitting in chair activates machine by unhooking connection #B1. Squirrel thinks: “What’s the point if this happens?”. After at least 5 whimpering, banging, screaming noises, release by pulling under connection #A2.

In other news today, Friday July 2nd is the last day for the half-year, half-price sale. So stock up while you can and look for more PicnicKnits patterns in the future.